Chapter 11 - The Coast of the DeadThe ocean was black.
Not dark.
Black.
There were no waves.
No birds.
No wind.
Alex stood at the shoreline with Joren.
Behind them, the Vael army approached.
Kael was gone.
Daren was gone.
Her mother was dead.
Everything familiar had been stripped away.
Joren handed her a small metal sphere.
"Your mother said to give you this when the sky turns red."
Alex looked up.
The sky was red.
"What does it do?"
"I don't know."
"Then why would I use it?"
"Because she told me you would know."
Alex stared at the sphere.
It was warm.
Almost alive.
Then the ocean moved.
A circular wave expanded from the horizon.
The water pulled backward.
The seabed appeared.
And something enormous rose from beneath it.
A structure.
Not a ship.
Not a building.
A gate.
Thousands of meters wide.
Covered in the same symbols.
Joren stepped backward.
"The door."
Alex walked toward it.
The sphere in her hand began glowing.
A voice filled her mind.
Alex.
She stopped.
Her mother's voice.
Not memory.
Real.
Mom?
Child.
Alex dropped the sphere.
It floated above the sand.
Your blood remembers.
She felt pain in her chest.
Then the symbols on the gate began lighting one by one.
Joren fell to his knees.
"I don't understand."
Alex whispered:
"Neither do I."
The gate opened.
Inside was darkness.
Then a figure stepped through.
A human woman.
Alex recognized her immediately.
Her mother.
But younger.
Exactly as she had looked six years ago.
Alex couldn't move.
Her mother smiled.
"It's complicated."
Alex laughed through tears.
"You're dead."
"Yes."
"Then how are you here?"
Her mother looked toward the gate.
"I didn't cross."
"What does that mean?"
"I sent part of myself."
The world shook.
Her mother became translucent.
"Alex, listen carefully."
"Why?"
"Because this is the last chance."
The Vael army reached the shore.
General Veyra stepped forward.
"Open the gate."
Alex looked at him.
"You want what's inside."
"No."
He looked afraid.
"I want it to stay asleep."
Then another figure emerged from the water.
Kael.
Covered in blood.
Alive.
Behind him walked Daren.
His eyes were silver again.
Alex stared.
"You both survived."
Kael smiled faintly.
"Not exactly."
The gate began opening wider.
Something moved inside.
Something massive.
Veyra fell to his knees.
"No."
Daren looked at Alex.
"Now you know why we defected."
May you like
The creature inside the gate opened one eye.
And the entire ocean screamed.
